How to Make a Box Snare

A box snare is an animal trap composed of a four-stake, square footprint. A string with a Honda and a loop, two additional stakes and a wooden rod with bait function as the trigger mechanism. The string is attached to a flexible limb or sapling and tied to the rod. The rod is held in place by two notched stakes pounded into the ground. When the rod is agitated and releases from the notches in the stakes, tension from the limb or sapling pulls the loop off the four perimeter stakes and draws it around the animal, snaring it and pulling it into the air.

Things You'll Need

  • Limb or sapling with 3-inch-diameter base
  • (6) 1-foot-by-2-inch Wooden stakes
  • 2-foot-by-1/2-inch Wooden rod
  • Saw
  • Hand sledge
  • Nylon string
  • Knife
  • Bait
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Instructions

    • 1

      Cut a 1/2-inch notch out of two of the stakes with the saw. Cut the notches 3 inches from the tops of the stakes (the ends without points). First cut 1/2 an inch into the stakes, perpendicular to the lengths. Make second cuts 1/2 an inch below the first cuts, but rather than making them perpendicular, cut them at a 45-degree angle toward the ends of the first cuts. If your cuts are straight, 1/2-by-1/2-by-1-inch right triangles will fall out of the stakes, leaving two 90-degree notches.

    • 2

      Bend the limb or sapling (the tensioner) down until the end is within 3 feet of the ground. Mark the ground below the end of the tensioner with your foot. Drive one notched stake into the ground on the mark with the hand sledge. Toward the base of the tensioner, drive the second notched stake into the ground (1 foot from the first); the two stakes and the base of the tensioner should be in a parallel line. The notches of the two stakes face the centerline.

    • 3

      Drive two more stakes into the ground with your hand sledge. Drive one 1 foot to the right of the first notched stake. Hammer the second 1 foot to the left of the first stake. Right and left are in relation to the base of the tensioner, with all three stakes in a parallel line, perpendicular to the first line. In conjunction with the two notched stakes, each of the two unnotched stakes makes a right triangle. Both unnotched stakes are 2 feet from the second notched stake, on a diagonal; the length between each unnotched stake and the second notched stake constitute the two hypotenuses of the triangles.

    • 4

      Pound the last two stakes into the ground, toward the base of the tensioner in relation to the first two unnotched stakes. Form a square with the four unnotched stakes; the second notched stake should be in the center of the square, and the first notched stake should be in the center of one of the four legs of the square.

    • 5

      Cut off 4 feet of string. Tie a Honda (a loop) in the end of the nylon string. Slide the other end of the string through the Honda. Make a 4-foot loop with the nylon string and Honda and lay it around the perimeter of the staked square. Place the Honda of the loop next to the first notched stake.

    • 6

      Put the rod in the notches of the stakes. Put the tail end of the string under the end of the rod (the end of the rod found on the perimeter of the square). The other end of the rod is in the center of the square. Pull up on the string tail. The tension causes the loop to wrap around the four unnotched stakes. It also holds the rod in place in the notches. Bend the tensioner (the limb or sapling) down as far as possible without breaking it. Tie the tail end of the string to the end of the tensioner. Hold the rod in place and slide bait over the end of it.